Tema, Aug 27, - The Joint
Committee of Freight Forwarders Associations on Monday refused to pay import
duties to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) as they embark on a three-day sit
down nation-wide strike.
The strike follows a one-week
ultimatum to the GRA and government to suspend the implementation of the Cargo
Track Note (CTN) system for further consultations with stakeholders.
The agents working with over 800 corporate entities,
would continue the strike to Wednesday August 29, 2018 to push for the CTN
postponement.
On Monday morning at about 0900
hours when the Ghana News Agency visited the Long Room at the Tema Port, the
usually busy place was quiet as a few of the agents were present.
A few of the agents who did not
belong to the Associations that declared the strike action were seen going
about their normal business at the place.
Executive officers of the
Associations made up of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF),
Association of Custom House Agents of Ghana (ACHAG), Freight Forwarders
Association of Ghana (FFAG), Custom Brokers Association of Ghana (CUBAG) and
the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana arrived at the premises at
about 1000 hours after a crunch meeting.
They shared red bands to the
agents who were by then massing up, and ensured that their members strictly
adhered to the call on them not to pay duties to government.
Mr Kwabena Ofosu-Appiah,
President of GIFF, speaking on behalf of the Joint Committee, reiterated their
call to government to postpone the
implementation of the CTN and do extensive consultation with all relevant
stakeholders as there were a lot of falsehood in the available information
about the stand-alone system.
Mr Ofosu-Appiah said government
and the GRA had refused to answer questions raised by them from January this
year and therefore had to embark on the strike to prompt officials to address
their issues.
He said even though they were not
forcing members to strike, they pleaded with all agents across the country from
Paga, Elubo, Kotoka International Airport, among others, not to pay the duties.
He added that the Joint Committee
would assess the impact of the strike after Wednesday and advice themselves on
the next action to take.
GNA
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